Reaching Out

Something interesting has taken place in the life and ministry of Edom United Methodist Church. About 6 months ago we got our new website up and running (you can check it out if you like at www.edomumc.org) and as a part of this 33 page site there is an area called Soul Food where people can hear audio of the sermons given on previous Sundays and a place where they can request a DVD of the service.

Now this is not a new idea, many churches are living in the 21st century and are live streaming or podcasting their services online. This is, however, a huge leap for us here in Edom.

These services were put in place to serve guests visiting our website, guests thinking about visiting our church, members who are unable (because of travels or health) to attend particular services, and to reach those that are too far away to come to our services.

The people involved felt called to do this, though we were not quite sure of all of the ways that God would use this ministry. Admittedly, our congregation's average age is in the 60's. So unlike many of the services that are available from various ministries and churches, ours is chock full of liturgy, hymns out of the hymnal, etc. To say the least, it is very different from a lot of what is available out there on the world wide web.

Last week, the lady that heads up the DVD portion of this ministry here in Edom received an email from an assisted living facility in Minnesota. They wanted to know if we would send them DVDs of our services. Long story short, yesterday we sent out a package of 30 previous services and have them on the list to mail services out each week.

You might think that after almost 10 years in ministry that things like this wouldn't have such a huge impact on me...but to tell you the truth, I can always use little reminders of God's faithfulness.

I tell you all this to remind you and to remind myself that God can and will use anything, anyone, anywhere for God's own good purposes. Sometimes we see the fruit of our labors in very short time frames and sometimes it is many years later...but God is always faithful.

The most ironic part of all of this (ironic, coincidental, God-thing related...what ever verbiage you want to use here) is that the Sunday prior to this happening I preached a sermon on Joshua that talked about how God was going to increase the Israelite's impact as they crossed the Jordan into the land that was promised to Moses and how God wants to increase our impact in the world too. It wasn't about our financial impact or some personal success, but it was about how God can use us to impact the world for the Kingdom of God if we will only listen and follow.

I am looking forward to our relationship with our new friends in Minnesota and to the many more ways that God's faithfulness will manifest itself in our ministry.